esSense 13 is a new social enterprise that is looking to raise the profile of African food via interactive online and offline activities. 2015 was a great year for us, with the success of the Twitter #Jollofdebate and the just endedAccra FoodHack, we have big plans for this year!

Primary responsibilities for this person include general administrative duties, maintenance of our digital media channels, newsletter, original content creation (e.g. blogging) and miscellaneous activities as they come up. This position is part time, and will be remote for most of the year, hence must be comfortable working independently. Background in social media management and/or interest in everything food is a plus. Preference will be given to candidates based in Accra.

If you like a fast-paced work environment that requires self-discipline, personal initiative and lots of creative thinking, send your CV, cover letter and salary requirements toinfo@essense13.com. Only serious candidates/applications will be contacted for follow up. Deadline to apply is February 18, 2016.

January 8, 2016Comments Off on AFH Challenge 2: Sustainability in the Food SectorFood posts

Editor’s Note:This is the final in a series of articles, in partnership with Fabulously Fit Fine, to introduce the Accra FoodHack (AFH) event and challenges to be addressed during the hackathon weekend. Accra FoodHack is brought to you byesSense 13and powered byCity Investments Company Ltd.

A solution is not one that solves an immediate problem and later generates another one. An absolute solution should be void of direct or indirect problem creation. Take healthy food vendors for example. They provide the masses with nutritious diet but their means of packaging leads to environmental pollution, which has been a major national problem for decades. As much as this has become a nation-wide issue, no progressive steps have been taken to resolve this cancer sweeping across our society. It’s easy to point out the obvious, i.e ‘suggesting a more friendly packaging.’ Ideally, huge vegetation leaves could help with environmental pollution because they decay (disappear) even if not attended to. However, it’s not as easy. You know the business adage, “the customer is always right?” Well, that’s the few negatives that come with that mantra. The customer insisting on non-degradable packaging ruins the environment and the business-minded vendor really can’t help it.

Looking at the dynamics, there are two parties involved in this harmful problem. The party with the upper hand is the customer. So the question remains, ‘is the customer willing to save the environment?’ Discussing this topic with friends, acquaintances, and family, I can confidently say a lot of people are displeased with the high level of environmental pollution. As to whether consumers would be willing to turn down their ‘comfortability’ down a notch by packing a sealable bowl with them anytime they commute, is another question.

So whenever they want to purchase food at a sales point, its just a matter of offering your bowl and the desired food get dished in, you seal it and go dine wherever you prefer. As much as there is less comfort in this approach, it promotes the greater good, which is keeping our bus stops, cities, neighborhoods and on a whole, our nation clean.

An alternative is for food vendors to sell these cheap and durable sealable bowls to customers who don’t want to carry one from home. To the stubborn customers who do not care about the environment and insist on non eco-friendly packaging, well, we can’t all be good citizens right? so let’s say vendors get to charge a lot extra on using that packaging option.

Another option is for customers to buy and eat the food at the place of purchase. Is this something you would consider? We researched people’s preferences on this and found that customers are willing to eat at places of purchase only if the places are clean enough. Many responders were concerned that there aren’t enough attractive places to eat and hence prefered carrying food elsewhere. Now, if the gap between 1)dining areas at food joints and 2)folks who purchase food were bridged, it will significantly reduce the need to package food from vendors.

Since we are talking about food related solutions why not step it up to not only solving problems but also making extra cash, so how about this; When we eat at home and have some leftovers, we defaultly bin it, thinking its ‘waste’. Did you know the average livestock farmer wants that ‘waste’ to feed his/her flock, head, or animals? Imagine collecting all weekly leftovers and packaging them for sale to small-to-medium livestock farmers. Depending on your marketing and business goals that is some side money you will be squeezing from the economy. Think about it.

Ok lets not get ahead of ourselves. We can’t solve all problems with food packaging and sustainability in this article, but we can move the conversation forward by attending the food hack and continuing the conversation there.

January 6, 2016Comments Off on Four Ways to Improve Tourism in GhanaFood posts

Editor’s Note:This is a guest post by food blogger, Lydia Chinery-Hesse, of Lydia Loves Good Food to introduce the Accra FoodHack (AFH) theme, centered on local tourism. The hack will address the ways technology can enable the food tourism industry in particular, thrive. AFH is brought to you byesSense 13and powered byCity Investments Company Ltd.

From traveling up north to Mole National Park, to Kakum and the Castles in Cape Coast, to experiencing the various festivals throughout the year, there is no shortage to the adventures you can enjoy or places you can go to for a relaxing weekend.

How often do you travel outside of Accra? I’m not referring to going to your hometown for a family visit or obligations, but traveling outside of the city for purely leisure purposes? Considering Ghana’s relatively small size, and the abundant beauty there is to be seen throughout the country, it’s quite sad that intra-Ghana travel is quite uncommon.

Kwahu

What’s the reason for this? In the years I’ve been in Ghana (6, going on 7), I have traveled to nearly every region, and I have visited quite a number of tourist locations. Getting around was not the easiest, whether by plane, tour bus, driving to by tro tro.

Imagine this: There are a limited number of airports in Ghana, so if you travel by plane, you’ll certainly have to travel by road again to visit any location outside of the major cities, and you’ll be in for quite a roller-coaster of a ride. Once finally reaching your destination, you’ll forget all about the ride because the views and sites to be seen will be absolutely astonishing! By then you’ll be wondering why you didn’t know such magnificence existed in Ghana, and you’ll be eager to plan several more trips throughout the country in the following months. On your way back home, you’ll be so tired from the ride, the total anti-climax to such a wonderful trip.

Considering how beautiful Ghana is, there are a few things that can be done to improve tourism in Ghana and make it more convenient and attractive. Below are four ways to improve tourism in Ghana:

Maintaining the Site:

It’s common to see sites that have run down over the years due to lack of maintenance. Let’s keep the natural exquisiteness that is a part of Ghana’s soul.

Providing all in one Packages:

Working together with other local businesses to provide a nature experience, food and bed and breakfast.

Incorporate Culture:

Culture is the core of Ghana’s past, present and future, and its increased incorporation into every aspect of tourism.

Create an online and social media presence:

Boti Falls

The importance of a regularly updated website and social media presence cannot be understated! That is normally the first point of contact for most potential customers.

There’s so much to learn about Ghanaian culture and there’s an abundance of splendor spread across the country that needs to be seen, so let’s all make a point to visit somewhere new at least twice a year!

Register forAccra FoodHack to explore ways we can address using food as a catalyst for local tourism.

December 28, 2015Comments Off on AFH Challenge 1: Nutrition in the Local ContextFood posts

Slices of papaya on white background

Editor’s Note:This is the second in a series of articles, in partnership with Fabulously Fit Fine, to introduce the Accra FoodHack (AFH) event and challenges to be addressed during the hackathon weekend. Accra FoodHack is brought to you by esSense 13 and powered by City Investments Company Ltd.

Eating healthy takes discipline. This means turning down a lot of attractive meals which are unhealthy for you. Sometimes giving in to tasty and sweet aroma of detrimental food feels as normal as breathing, but it takes the determined soul to resist the urge for prolonged destruction.

So if you are on the journey of healthy nutrition, push on Soldier! You doing good! We are proud of you.

This new wave of enlightened nutrition brings to light an unsatisfied demand with a lot of potential. Approaching the hurdle of healthy nutrition with design thinking, we realized people do not take up this holy cause because there are usually no sweet, tasty, mouthwatering alternatives out there. If a person is encouraged to reduce or halt the intake of red meat (goat, steak, pork, chicken), they usually ask for alternatives, but what they do end up hearing is ‘blah, blah, blah, fish’ since FISH is mostly accessible, easy to prepare and affordable.

We went into the field to interact with a couple of food venders. We came across most of them when strolling through the streets of Accra. We took turns to mimic a ‘Flexitarian‘ (Flexitarian is a union of two words: flexible and vegetarian. This word has been around for a while but started getting acknowledged because of the healthy nutrition craze) and vegetarian who wanted to purchase waakye, boiled yam, jollof, plantain, plain rice, banku, Tuo-zaafi etc., and we wanted other sources of protein other than meat and fish. The only and readily available option was boiled egg. Yup, so if these are your common options then it’s fair to understand why folks fall off the wagon of healthy nutrition so easily.

As you can tell from our field test, there aren’t many obvious options for flexitarians and vegetarians when it comes to alternatives to meat in Ghana. This undermined sector of the food industry in Ghana is yearning to be tapped. If this sector gains momentum, just imagine the financial projections for a tasty, mouthwatering, easy-to-get alternatives. That’s a lot of guap! It might not look probable for an individual to tackle this on their own. Maybe a communal approach to this gold mine would be the answer.

Organizations that handle consumer goods have a more candid challenge; because there is already growing demand for healthier food including alternatives to meat .The struggle will be to produce distinctive protein-alternative and packaging / delivering services not forgetting to price them affordably for consumers looking for quick and easy ways to consume nutritious food.

Based on the premise that you should love what you eat and what you eat should be nutritious and delicious, ‘foodies’ and interested entrepreneurs who are willing to campaign in this section of the food industry should make sure the alternatives they introduce are equally (if not more) mouthwatering, has a good aroma and of course, less harmful to the environment. Are you thinking of partnering with us? The Accra FoodHack is the ultimate place to get started. Join myriads of foodies and techies to start the foundation for what will be Ghana’s first and biggest food hack. Be part of the conversation to change the future of food in Ghana and on the continent. Don’t prolong your registration any further. Log on to http://essense13.com/hack/ for more information and to accrafoodhack.eventbrite.com to register your team.

Have you ever heard of a hackathon focused on food? Exactly, me neither. But it’s happening in the city of Accra. Although happening in Accra, its impact goes beyond the borders of Mother Ghana. I know at least it reaches the perimeter of West African meals. It is happening between January 8th & 9th 2016 at the Impact Hub in Nyaniba. Yup you have enough time to strap and gear up for this event. Even though this event is going to be amazing, the primary objective is to get sharp minds of ‘foodies’ and ‘techies’ to brainstorm and develop practical solutions to challenges in starting a food or beverage business, the food supply chain system, food packaging and customer experiences with food businesses. As you can sense, this food hack is looking at revolutionizing the food industry on a whole. So do not leave your thinking caps at home.

The food space is huge; so are the challenges. Of course no food related hurdle is higher than the other. However, the Alpha challenge set for this hackathon is … *drum roll* ”How do we use Ghanaian food to increase local and international tourism in the country?” The varying solutions to be presented for this mega challenge should have these areas covered: Nutrition, Convenience, Sustainability, and Employment. For more information about this food hack, visit http://essense13.com/hack/

As part of the Hack, there will be a fun activity on the 9th of January dubbed a ‘photo walk’. This happens on a Saturday morning. Teams will spend the early morning snapping pictures that capture the food scene in Accra and sharing it on social media with a hashtag that will be made available at the event. There will be prizes for the best scenery, which communicates the food scene in Accra.

If you are a newbie to hackathons don’t fret. We gotcha, here are some things you should do and expect:

Rule #1 – Don’t come alone, bring friends. To be a top dawg in a hackathon you need a clique. [You don’t have to worry about bringing your neighborhood gang. We only recommend that if most of your hood members are ‘foodies’, ‘techies’ and got some ‘Steve jobs’ in them.] In order to be part of a badass hackathon team, you should be at least sociable (be updated on pop culture, technology, news and anything conversation-friendly). You got the point, don’t come alone; bring friends, in fact your entire neighborhood won’t be a bad idea. If you already have a suitable team then easily register your team at accrafoodhack.eventbrite.com

Rule #2 – Icebreakers and networking: There will be icebreakers at the beginning and during the event, so are special event designed for you to network and expand your niche. This is the moment you sniff out the wolves at the party. (There are various types of people who go for hackathons; we can talk about that later. For winning purposes, Fabfitfine recommend you focus on the wolves.) We are talking about those “techies” and “foodies” who will be attending with their eyes on the prize. Ideally, these are folks you want to team up with. Some of them might have personalities clashing with yours but as a soldier on a mission, we suggest you suck it up, network, enjoy the event.

Rule #3 – Be proactive: To sniff out a wolf, you need a bait. In other words, be active and hands on. In a jungle or a mountain side, we would need a rabbit or human target, but intellectual wolves are on another level. When having a casual conversation with a look-like-a-wolf type of person, you don’t want to come off so strong. Here’s what to do; ask remote but related questions about the Alpha challenge and the process behind it. Doing this with a positive attitude will earn you a high five; you can pat yourself on the back. It’s also an entry point to discern if that wolf is worth partnering with. It’s a start.

On a good day, the rules above are for regular people. (That said, who defines ‘regular?’) If you are a maverick and can do a whole lot, like climbing a mountain and retrieving the Quran, or fighting HYDRA with a club, or even capable of dying for the sins of this world, then you are already ahead of the game and obviously don’t need the above rules. So without wasting much time and to ensure your admission to this epic event – visit accrafoodhack.eventbrite.com to register yourself or your team.

October 14, 2015Comments Off on #JollofDebate: Ghana Versus NigeriaAnnouncements

On 16th October 2015,UN World Food Day, @essense_13 will host a Twitter debate between Nigerian and Ghanaian food bloggers and enthusiasts on the merits of jollof from their respective countries.

Debate Format

A sign-up form is currently live for interested participants to sign up as debaters. On Wednesday 14th October, all the individuals who sign up will be introduced to one another in the Nigerian and Ghanaian groups so they can internally select their final debaters.

All the judges and debaters will be unveiled on the evening of Thursday 15th October.

Main Debate

The first debater will be required to convince the judges that the jollof from his/her nationality is better (10 minutes)

The second debater will be required to convince the judges that the jollof from the opposing country is worse (10 minutes)

The third debater must have information about how the the original jollof from SeneGambia is prepared. For this section, both debaters will tweet at the same time and will have a maximum of 10 minutes to prepare a SeneGambian jollof on twitter. (10 minutes)

The last debater’s task will be to summarize the main points raised by his/her team. (5 minutes)

Judging

An odd number of votes have been assigned to African twitter personalities who will follow closely and vote either Nigeria or Ghana depending on how either team convinced them. The submissions from the third debater will be evaluated by an African chef who will cast his/her vote for Ghana or Nigeria depending on who prepared the original jollof better.

Winner

Judges will publicly declare their votes and the votes will be counted. The team with the higher number of votes wins the debate.

Legend has it, that like all great things ever created, jollof was discovered by accident. A Senegalese woman accidentally poured rice into her stew and what we know today as jollof was born.

It sounds like a really simple recipe actually. Make a basic tomato-based stew, with whatever protein you fancy, add in your rice, some 25 min or so later, you have jollof. But not so easy people! As a connoisseur of jollof, I can unequivocally tell you that not all jollof is made equal.

First there are regional differences; Senegal jollof is different from Ghana jollof which is different from Nigeria jollof. Differences stem from how tomato-ey the stew is, to the type of rice used. Nigerians tend to use Uncle Ben’s rice, according to my unscientific research, while Ghanaians prefer long-grain rice.

Then travelling around the world, I’ve found that especially in Spanish-influenced cultures, versions of jollof also exist. Spanish rice, and paella have similarities to jollof – rice cooked in a flavorful tomato-based sauce. My recent trip to Barcelona had me searching for Senegalese jollof but to no avail. Instead, I found wonderful paella place that satisfied my craving just fine. Bomba rice, a short-grain variety, is primarily used in making authentic paella, and the paella we had was made to order, right out of the oven!

Here goes my own take on jollof, ala Paella. Hope your version tastes as good as this one did! The base stew is the first factor that could make or break your jollof. You’ll need tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger to start with. How much of each ingredient you put in depends on your flavor palette – I used 4 vine tomatoes, half of a medium-sized yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic and about a teaspoon of chopped ginger.

Chop ingredients up and using a food processor or blender, blend into a smooth puree.

Unfortunately for me, my American blender did not take particularly well to the German wattage, so seconds into pureeing, it went kaput on me! I ended up with huge chunks of the vegetables versus the smooth puree I was hoping for. I still went with the flow.

I like to use bacon to give my jollof a bit of a smoky essence. Completely optional, but it makes a big, nice difference. Bacon was obtained from a German marketplace, and I chopped up 2 thick slices to use.

Transfer into a deep baking dish (I line with aluminum foil for easy cleaning later), and then add basmati rice. This is another point where things can get dicey. Rice-sauce ratio could determine how great (or not) your jollof turns out to be. Too much rice, and your jollof turns out dry. Too little rice, and jollof is soggy. Too little sauce, leaves you with pale-looking rice; too much sauce – soggy and paella-like rice, not jollof. Start with a cup of rice, and about half a cup of water, the sauce will have liquid to soak up the rice too. Generally speaking, two part of water to one part of rice should suffice.